1. Field of the Invention
An embodiment of the invention disclosed herein relates to a separation apparatus, a separation method, and a method for manufacturing semiconductor elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, attention has been drawn to a technique for forming semiconductor elements such as thin film transistors (TFTs) by using a semiconductor thin film formed over a substrate having an insulating surface. Thin film transistors are widely applied to electric devices such as an integrated circuit, an electro-optical device, a photoelectric conversion device, and a wireless communication device and are being urgently developed especially as switching elements for image display devices (see Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and Patent Document 3).
There is a variety of applications for such image display devices; among them, an application to portable devices has particularly attracted attention. Therefore, it has been attempted to form TFT elements over a flexible substrate, typically a flexible plastic film (see Patent Document 1, Patent Document 2, and Patent Document 3).